Happy For Them
by bingblot
Summary: A one-shot post-ep to "Murder He Wrote." Ryan tells Jenny about Castle and Beckett being together and gets some reassurance that they'll be happy together. "Castle's totally in love with Beckett and I'm not sure that Beckett is in love with Castle. And if she's not, she's going to break his heart."


_Disclaimer: Still not mine. _

_Author's Note: A post-ep to "Murder He Wrote"—because I love Ryan and I wanted to explore what he would think about Caskett after learning their secret. _

**Happy For Them**

Castle and Beckett.

Castle and Beckett were together.

Really?

Finally.

No wonder Beckett had been so upset at the idea of Castle's going out on a date with Kristina Coterra a couple weeks ago. What the heck had Castle been thinking? Although—now that Ryan thought about it, he supposed he could guess—Castle had probably not been thinking all that clearly—impulsive as he was—and then figured he could use it to throw everyone, including him and Espo, off the scent of him and Beckett being together. Idiot Castle. Because honestly, who thought like that and decided that was a good idea when dating someone who carried a gun and was a damn good shot? It was a minor miracle that they hadn't gotten reports of Kristina Coterra and Richard Castle being shot by a certain NYPD detective.

Ryan found himself grinning and then actually laughed aloud at the thought as he opened the door of his apartment and stepped inside.

"Hey Kev," Jenny greeted him.

He bent to kiss her cheek. "Hi sweetie."

"So, what's so funny? Good day at work?"

"Oh, we helped close a case," he shrugged.

Jenny frowned a little. "Aren't you guys supposed to be pretty much off this weekend?"

"Oh, yeah, it was as a favor to Castle. A guy dropped dead in his backyard in the Hamptons."

She blinked, her face paling a little in immediate dismay. "God, that's terrible!"

Ryan slid an arm around her shoulders, tugging her in closer to kiss her hair and then collapsed onto the couch, pulling her down with him. He loved that Jenny wasn't at all jaded about death, was so free from any of the darkness that ran through his work. He knew some people—Esposito and Lanie came to mind— liked being able to talk about work when they got home to their significant others. (He suddenly realized that now that applied to Castle and Beckett too.) But he wasn't one of them. He loved the fact that Jenny wasn't involved with his work. As much as he loved being a cop, he knew he couldn't deal with it all the time, all the lies and the deceit and the callousness and the deaths. Being a cop wasn't easy and for him, he needed to be able to come home to a place, a person, who didn't think in terms of crime and murder. A person who was still horrified at the mention of death and murder. It kept him from becoming jaded, from not caring about the victims and their lives. It reminded him every day why he did what he did, helping to keep the city safe so that other people could live their lives free from the violence and crime that was the curse of any big city.

"Castle was able to take it in stride, Jenny," he reassured her. "He's seen enough in his years running around after us. And he didn't know the victim at all so it wasn't personal. He just got caught up in the story behind it, the way he usually does, and so he asked us as a favor to look into the victim's connections here in the city."

Jenny settled in comfortably next to him, snugly tucked into the circle of his arm. "Still. Poor Rick. He can't even go out of town for a weekend without something like that happening?"

Ryan grinned almost in spite of himself. "Somehow, I'm pretty sure Castle still managed to enjoy the weekend."

Jenny narrowed her eyes a little. "Kev, you know something you're not telling me. Why are you so sure Rick still enjoyed the weekend?"

He laughed aloud. "Because he wasn't alone. He and Beckett were up there together."

"Rick and Kate? They're together now? Oh my God, Kev, that's so great! I'm so happy for them!"

He turned to Jenny. "Wait, you can't mention it to Javier or to Lanie or anyone else at work. They're keeping it a secret because of NYPD regs. I only found out by accident pretty much in questioning a person of interest in this Hamptons case."

"Javi doesn't even know?"

"No. We only knew Beckett was dating someone; she told us she was taking the weekend off to go away with her boyfriend."

"And you really didn't know that this boyfriend was Rick?"

Ryan shook his head. "Actually, me and Javi spent most of the weekend trying to figure out who Beckett's mystery boyfriend was."

Jenny laughed. "You two are just ridiculous sometimes."

He shrugged. "We have to look out for Beckett." He paused, suddenly not feeling quite as amused over the idea of Castle and Beckett being together, as he remembered just why he and Espo had determined they should figure out who Beckett's boyfriend was. Because it had almost definitely started during Beckett's suspension after she'd nearly died, being thrown into the middle of her mother's case with a vengeance. Beckett had been in a bad place—he of all people knew that, had seen it in the way she'd broken every rule and every protocol they'd ever learned. Espo had followed her because that was what Espo did; he had his friends' backs and would follow his friends into hell without batting an eye. As would Ryan for that matter but he'd also realized that the sniper, the conspiracy, went much deeper than any of them would have expected and the sniper was a professional. Not someone that only two trained cops, even cops as good as Beckett and Espo, should go up against without backup. Loyalty was one thing but for Ryan, his loyalty meant doing whatever he could to keep his friends alive, not blindly following his friends as they jumped off a cliff.

Beckett had been in a bad place at the time, he knew it. And that, at the low point of her professional career when she'd been cut off and adrift from the work that defined her entire adult life, had been when she'd started up with Castle. Castle, who was part of her work—Castle, who would have been someone familiar to grasp at for support when she was at her lowest. Castle, whom she knew damn well would be an easy mark if she ever made half a move, even sent so much as a look, in his direction.

"Kev? Kevin?"

He blinked, returning to the present to see that Jenny was studying him. "What's wrong, Kev? You just went off somewhere in your head. What's bothering you?"

He hesitated but then answered honestly—as he always was honest with Jenny—"It's this thing with Castle and Beckett. I—I want to be happy for them and I am happy for them, of course, if they're happy, but I'm just… I'm not sure it's the right thing for both of them."

Jenny smiled a little, lifting a hand to touch his cheek. "You are a good friend, Kevin Ryan," she said softly.

He smiled, bringing her hand to his mouth to kiss her palm. "You might be a little biased, Mrs. Ryan," he teased.

She laughed. "Oh I'm definitely biased where you're concerned but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. You are a good friend."

He shrugged a little. "Castle and Beckett are two of my best friends; they're practically family now."

"Kate and Rick will be an adorable couple. You know my entire family's convinced they already are a couple after seeing them at our wedding."

Ryan smiled automatically at the mention of the wedding. "You might be right and I'm worrying for nothing."

"I think Kate and Rick are perfect for each other but you know them better than I do so what are you worrying about?"

"It's just that, well, Castle's totally and completely in love with Beckett," Ryan blurted out.

Jenny laughed. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It's not a bad thing but it means she can hurt him. Beckett can break Castle's heart."

"Rick's a grown man, Kevin. This isn't some teenage boy with his first crush. You're talking about Richard Castle, playboy author who's already been married twice."

"I know, right? But that's the thing, Jenny. Castle knows women, he's been with plenty of them, I know that. But Beckett, well, she's… different than that for Castle. She's not just any woman to him. He's in love with her and I mean seriously in love. Last summer after Beckett was shot—he was a wreck. Really. I don't think he slept a wink for a week after the shooting and I know he was basically living at the precinct. Espo and I had to call his mother and his daughter to make him go home just to take a shower and change his clothes. I mean, Espo and I think of Beckett like a sister and you know how upset we were over what happened to her but Castle—compared to him, Espo and I didn't care at all. And the way he looks at her sometimes… he looks at her as if she hung the moon and the stars." Castle looked at Beckett, well, the way Ryan knew he looked at Jenny sometimes. He recognized that expression on Castle's face and that was how he knew just how deep Castle's feelings for Beckett ran, entirely aside from the fact that Castle wasn't exactly subtle about it.

"I'm still not seeing why any of this is a bad thing. I think it means Rick's a sweetheart."

He shot her a mock frown. "You're married, remember?"

Jenny only laughed and leaned forward to kiss him quickly. "Silly man."

Ryan grinned at her, lacing his fingers with hers. "Just making sure. I've seen the way women react to him."

"Well, from what you've just said, it doesn't matter how women react to Rick if he doesn't care about any of them except for Kate."

"It really doesn't and that's sort of my point. He's in love with her, has been for years, I think. And she's… I don't know. Beckett plays things close to the vest; doesn't really share. Even when she's been dating, she's just never seemed to really be that emotionally invested in the relationship. At least, she wasn't that invested in her last relationship and I have a hard time picturing Beckett as being very… I don't even know the word," he finally gave up, knowing he hadn't been very clear on things. He felt a little guilty even saying this stuff about Beckett since she was like a sister to him and he knew he'd give his life for her, just as she would for him, but that wasn't the point. Beckett wasn't… like Jenny, was all he could come up with. Jenny was… open, trusting, sweet. Beckett, well, wasn't. Ryan understood and didn't blame Beckett for it—anyone who'd seen and experienced a parent's murder, dirty cops, criminal cover-ups, personal betrayals, to the extent Beckett had would be guarded and reticent and cynical and all those things. So Ryan understood Beckett's issues—but that was the problem. Beckett _had_ issues and he worried over what would happen when her issues got in the way of her relationship.

Ryan knew Beckett well enough to know that she wouldn't have deliberately started a relationship with Castle _only_ because she was at a low point in her career and in need of something familiar to hold on to while suspended from her job. He was sure that Beckett cared about Castle. He just wasn't sure…

"I guess what I'm saying is that Castle's totally in love with Beckett and I'm honestly not sure that Beckett is in love with Castle. And if she's not, if she only cares about him but doesn't love him, she's going to break his heart."

"That's really very sweet, Kev, but I think you're worrying over nothing. In fact, I'm sure of it. You know both Rick and Kate better than I do but I promise you, Kate _is_ in love with Rick. She is, I know it."

"Has she… told you that?" he asked a little doubtfully but feeling more hopeful. Jenny might not know Castle and Beckett as well as he did but he also trusted her judgment and, well, this was a relationship thing, more of a women's thing. And he knew Jenny and Kate had become friends, had even met up for lunch a couple times, both before and after the wedding, joining Kate and Lanie in their occasional girls' lunches.

"Not in so many words, no, but I know she loves Rick."

"How can you be so sure?"

Jenny smiled at him with simple confidence. "Because, Kev, I saw the way she looked at him at our wedding."

"At our wedding? When? And how was she looking at him?"

"It was at the reception when Rick was dancing with little Amy."

Ryan thought back to the reception. He vaguely remembered seeing Castle talking to Amy who was the 8-year-old daughter of one of Jenny's cousins and who'd served as the flower girl, and to Amy's mom, who was, as it happened, a big fan of Castle's books. But dancing with Amy? He couldn't remember. But then again, in all honesty, most of Ryan's recollections of the wedding and the reception centered around Jenny. Jenny walking towards him up the aisle. Jenny smiling at him. Jenny leaning in to kiss him. Dancing with Jenny. Jenny cutting a piece of their wedding cake to feed him a piece with her fingers. Jenny laughing at something Lanie had said.

"I don't remember," he said. "Castle danced with Amy?" He could, now that he thought about it, easily imagine Castle dancing with little Amy but he didn't remember it.

"Yeah, he did. Actually, you might not have seen it; I think it was when Javier and some of the other guys cornered you at the reception."

Ah, right. When Javi, a couple of Jenny's male relatives, and some of his friends from police academy had cornered him to rib him over the wedding night, cracking ribald jokes that Ryan would have enjoyed more if Jenny's male relatives hadn't also been there. (And that had been excruciatingly awkward. How the hell were you supposed to honestly laugh at a ribald quip about having sex with your new bride when your new bride's brother and cousins were standing right there?)

"I'm not sure what led up to it but Rick danced with little Amy and it really was adorable the way he treated her like she was all grown up and the belle of the ball."

Ryan grinned a little. "Yeah, I can imagine that. Castle adores his daughter so he's got experience dealing with little girls. No wonder Amy still talks about Castle the way she does."

"Yeah, he has a fan for life in Amy. But it really was the cutest thing and I think my friend, Lindsay, got a crush on him just from seeing him dancing with Amy like that. Kate was watching him too, the entire time he was dancing with Amy, and I saw the look on her face and Kev, the way she looked at him, she _definitely_ loves Rick."

"It wasn't just because it was one of those cute things women swoon over?" he asked a little skeptically.

Jenny shook her head, giving him a little, half-teasing (and completely adorable) grimace at his words. "Trust me, Kevin, a woman can spot when another woman is in love." Her expression softened a little. "You want to know how I'm so sure of what Kate feels about Rick?"

"Yes," he answered immediately. "It's not one of those women's intuition things, is it?"

"I recognized the way Kate was looking at Rick because it's the same way I look at you."

And that was the perfect answer, he thought, in that way Jenny had of saying the perfect thing when he needed to hear it. And he couldn't doubt it anymore. Jenny was sure that Beckett loved Castle and he trusted Jenny's opinion. If she said it, it was true, had to be true. And of course it made sense, that Jenny would be able to recognize Beckett's expression just as he knew how Castle felt because he recognized the way Castle looked at Beckett sometimes.

And as long as Beckett was in love with Castle too, then he thought they just might make it, even with Beckett's issues. Because, as guarded and slow to trust as Beckett was, he also knew that Castle had somehow snuck in past Beckett's defenses, knew that Beckett trusted Castle and let her guard down around him in a way she did with no one else. So as long as Beckett loved Castle…

He smiled. Damn, Castle must be over the moon after waiting for so long, to finally be with Beckett.

Ryan tugged Jenny closer so he could kiss her. "Well, I guess there's nothing to worry about and we can just be happy for Castle and Beckett then."

"I am happy for them. I think they'll be great together."

"Yeah, you're right," he agreed. "They're different but somehow, they work together well and I think they'll fit as a couple outside of work just as well as they do as partners at work. And they love each other."

Ryan suddenly wondered if Castle and Beckett had figured out from what he'd said on the phone that Aaron Lerner had told him about the two of them. He'd enjoyed teasing them but he already knew he wouldn't mention it again, to either of them, not until they told him themselves. He would keep their secret at work, wouldn't even tell Espo for now.

Castle and Beckett. Together, for real, and in love.

He laughed a little to himself, making a mental note for what to say when they decided to tell him, when the secret would come out.

Castle and Beckett—finally. And it was about damn time!

_~The End~_

_A/N 2: I hope this managed to do justice to Ryan and sound like him as much as possible. Would love to know what people think! Thanks for reading and happy Castle Monday! _


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